City expects success with price controls
 
Goods sold under the price-stabilisation programme are expected to meet consumer demand in HCM City this year, according to the municipal People's Committee.

After four months of implementation, this year's price-stabilisation programme had been going well amid high inflation and increasing prices of input materials, said the deputy chairwoman of the HCM City People's Committee, Nguyen Thi Hong, at a meeting to review this year's programme on Friday.

Providers committed to ensure an adequate supply for the market, especially for Tet (Lunar New Year), Hong said during a meeting with the Vice Minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Ho Thi Kim Thoa.

The two officials discussed the expansion of the distribution network of the programme, which began this year in April with nine essential items.

Since that time, the volume of products has risen between 14-41 per cent compared to the same period when the programme was in effect last year.

The number of businesses participating in the programme has also increased to 22 from last year's 14.

More than VND437 billion (US$21.2 million) has been invested in the programme to help participating businesses ensure supplies, according to Hong. However, a number of them are investing their own money.

The People's Committee deputy head said prices under the stabilisation programme would remain at least 10 per cent cheaper than market prices, a commitment that providers must make to participate in the programme.

An adequate supply of goods would also offset any price hikes in the market, Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) quoted Hong as saying.

"Having a secure supply is the most important factor in the programme's success," Van Duc Muoi, the general director of Vissan Limited Company, said at the meeting.

Pork is among the essential food and foodstuffs chosen for the stabilisation programme, and Vissan, which has 600 agents in HCM City and provinces nationwide, is a key supplier for the programme.

The company began stocking pork products in June to make sure it would have enough supply during Tet, Muoi said, explaining that the early storage was done because pork prices increased seven times this year.

Unstable food and consumer prices had become more common in the past few years, especially near the end of the lunar year amid high inflation.

The Vissan leader said the company was planning to store more than 4,000 tonnes per month for Tet, 10,000 tonnes more than its assigned monthly storage.

The vice director of the HCM City's biggest supermarket chain, Sai Gon Co.op, Bui Hanh Thu said that supply sources were key to the company's back-to-back 40 per cent increase in revenue.

Sai Gon Co.op has stored around 20,000 tonnes of goods for the stabilisation programme this year, at least three times what the corporation was assigned.

One of the key tasks to improve the programme and make it more popular is expansion of the distribution network for the goods in industrial parks (IPs), export processing zones (EPZs) and suburban areas.

Can Gio, the most distant district in HCM City, saw five more stabilised-goods distribution shops open last month, according to the People's Committee.

The city has appointed State-run businesses to spearhead the development of the distribution network so that private enterprises will be encouraged to join.

The number of stabilised-goods shops and distribution agencies has leapfrogged in the last three years. There have been more than 2,770 shops, compared to 248 in 2008.

The introduction of these goods in traditional markets, co-operatives, student boarding schools and mobile shops in suburbs, as well as IPs and EPZs, have been developed on a large scale.

"The HCM City stabilisation programme has become a national one following its success," Thoa, the MoIT vice minister, said.

The Government has entrusted the MoIT to improve the HCM City price – stabilisation programme so that it will be responsive to price hikes and continue to have a sufficient volume of storage to meet demand, according to Thoa.

The success of HCM City programme was due to the transparent criteria used for its implementation, and the appropriate selection of goods for essential products and businesses.

Other essential goods, including medicine, milk powder and students' school supplies, are also included in the programme.

PV Gas approved on import gas port project  

PetroVietnam Gas has received the government’s approval to construct a port with storehouse for gas import in the south central province of Binh Thuan.  

Do Khang Ninh, general director of the company which is known briefly as PV Gas, said main sectors of the project include a port, a store and a recycling area.

The company by the end of this year will finish setting up the plan, which will then be submitted to concerned agencies for approval, Ninh said, adding that the project is expected to be carry out within next year.

He said the project, with estimated investment of more than US$1 billion, will be able to import around two to three million tons of gas every year.

According to the director, Vietnam’s current gas demand is nearly 10 billion cubic meters every year while domestic sources can only supply around 8.5 billion cubic meters.

During proceeding the project, PV Gas will make negotiations to import gas from Qatar and Australia, Ninh said.

In related news, Vietnam and Russian petroleum joint venture Vietsovpetro has finished the construction of two gas rigs and one of them has been ready to be launched to the sea, according to a source from the company.

The oil rigs are expected to develop 6.31 million tons of gas this year and 6.14 million tons in 2012, as the company has planned earlier.

Vietsovpetro will continue more drilling to increase the company’s oil and gas output in the coming time.
 
Rice festival to honor “Vietnamese pearl”  

The second Vietnam Rice Festival will take place in the southern province of Soc Trang on November 8-11 this year to glorify the commodity, which makes the country known as a world leading rice exporter, the organizers announced Tuesday.

“The festival is a significant economic, cultural, social and tourism event of the country, mainly to honor those who make and export Vietnamese rice, or Vietnamese pearl,” Soc Trang Province Chairman Nguyen Trung Hieu told a press conference in Ho Chi Minh City.  

“Rice has an important role to play in global food security, and Vietnam has its role in that,” said Mr. Hieu, head of the organizing panel.

Involved in organizing the national event are the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development; Industry and Trade; Culture, Sport and Tourism; Information and Communications; Vietnam Food Association and other Government agencies, he added.
 
The festival will include displays, exhibitions, fairs, seminars and scientific workshops; activities to promote investment, trade and business relations among domestic and foreign partners, cultural and sports activities which are typical in the Mekong delta province, home to a majority of Khmer people.

The festival is coincided with the Khmer people’s Water Festival – the most important event in the year of the ethnic minority group.

More than 20 countries and territories have agreed to join the Rice Festival, including India, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Netherlands, , Chile, Russia, Thailand, Canada, the US and Indonesia, according to the organizers. The foreign partners will take part in gastronomy pavilions, exhibitions, cultural activities and workshops.

Vietnam shipped 4.61 million tons of rice between January and July up 16.7 percent in volume from a year ago. The shipments brought home US$2.18 billion, a 26 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Food Association.

Vietnam currently ranks second in the world in rice exports after Thailand, but the country’s promotion work remains weak, according to market analysts.

Because of that, this rice festival is a good opportunity to connect Vietnamese producers with domestic and foreign traders, aiming to bring Vietnam’s rice products to more potential markets, according to Mr. Vo Minh Chien, Party chief of Soc Trang Province and head of the Steering Board for the festival.

The first Vietnam Rice festival took place in 2009 in Hau Giang, another Mekong Delta province.

The delta region contributes over half of the country’s rice output, 90 per cent of rice export, 65 per cent of fisheries production and 70 per cent of fruit.

Textile giants eager to be supplier for domestic retailers  

Textile exporters with large output and skilled employees opt for becoming suppliers for domestic fashion retailers as the global economy remains sour.  

Textile producer Garmex Sai Gon, one of the country’s largest textile exporters, has inked an agreement worth VND100 billion (US$5 million) to become a supplier for local fashion retailer Blue Exchange this year.

The move has startled analysts since the Ho Chi Minh City-based textile firm already established a chain of fashion shops with the brand named Saga in 2004.

“Saga seems to be booming, with positive sales, diversified designs and broad distribution network,” says Garmex Sai Gon chairman Le Quang Hung.

“However, the chain actually incurred losses due to a large inventory, low return-on-investment rate and profit margin, which were not announced officially.”

Garmex Sai Gon gradually reduced the chain’s operation before shutting it down in 2004.

Many big textile exporters have suffered heavy losses from making forays into the domestic market due to lack of experience in retail business, Hung notices.

The profit margin from export shipments drops to below 10 percent due to the global economic turmoil, he discloses.

“If we set the margin [10 percent] for the domestic market, we will have great advantages over other competitors,” Hung says.

“They comprise of low-prices and high-quality products and the capability of supplying up to hundreds of thousands of apparels in a short period of time.”

Blue Exchange, meanwhile, is among the city’s most popular fashion retailers, with a chain of 140 shops nationwide.

It is seeking suppliers that produce hi-quality apparels in large volumes without requiring either initial investments or materials. Therefore, Garment Sai Gon is one of its top picks.  

“ASEAN is expected to become a free trade area by 2015. As a result, apparels from Singapore, Malyasia and Thailand will strongly enter Vietnam, while local retailers such as Blue Exchange will have chances to hit store shelves in neighboring countries,” Hung says.

“Garment Sai Gon will also consequently have opportunities to boost sales.”

The firm notices that it has to rely on the core business since it suffers heavy losses from trying to become a local retailer, which were caused by a huge inventory and unstable consumption, he says.

“We are skilled at textile. We are among the biggest suppliers for many European fashion groups. Thus we can easily become the biggest suppliers for local retailers,” Hung says.
 
Military firm launches new service for fishermen

The military-owned telecom corporation Viettel yesterday (Tuesday) launched “Sea+”, a prepaid service for people living and working in sea and coastal areas, especially for fishermen on high seas.

Boasting special preferences and features, the service is meant to help ensure safety and communication for sea people.

Sea+ users will be provided with free weather forecasts for a certain registered area.

The switchboard centre 1111 has been set up to answer fishermen’s questions on the weather and other emergency issues for a fee of merely VND1,000 (5 cents) per minute for Sea+ customers.

In other news, the number of new mobile phone users has fallen sharply this year, according to a Thanh Nien report that quoted VnExpress Sunday.

The three largest phone companies Vinaphone, MobiFone and Viettel, would have a total of 130,000 new users a day in previous years, but the figure has dropped by 70 percent now, the article said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers reported in June that Vietnam had a large mobile market size with 155.5 million subscribers. Vinaphone and MobiFone, both owned by state-run VNPT, and Viettel account for 88 percent of the subscribers.

The consulting company said the market will see slower growth and telecom operators will have to search for new growth avenues by increasing usage, moving more customers to post-paid service, and increasing data and media services, Thanh Nien reported.

HSBC sees dong lower, SBV vows to bolster it

The Vietnam dong will be the only currency in the region to fall against the US dollar following the downgrading of the US's debt rating by S&P, according to a report by HSBC.

It would fall from the current VND20,800 levels to VND21,500 to a dollar and remain there until the end of Q2 next year, HSBC said in its August 2011 report on money market prospects.

However, the State Bank of Vietnam has been reported as planning to strengthen the dong in the next four months to protect the value of the domestic currency.

Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon newspaper quoted new SBV governor Nguyen Van Binh as saying the real value of the dong “has risen slightly since February.”

"The primary target of foreign exchange policy is to stabilize the dong and keep it under control, not to fix it. Confidence in the domestic currency has been fading and we must immediately restore that confidence, which is vital to economic stability."

Binh advised the public that holding on to the dong was the best policy.

Strategies to protect the dong would include deposit interest rate reform that created predictable interest rates at levels of around 14 percent for the dong and 2 percent for the dollar, he said.

The central bank has bought over $4 billion in the year to date.

At the Consultative Group Meeting in June, the International Monetary Fund estimated Vietnam’s foreign reserves at $13.5 billion, or equivalent to 1.5 months’ imports.

A report from the Asian Development Bank last month said Vietnam’s forex reserves covered 1.6 months of imports.

On August 16 banks bought the greenback at around VND20,750 and sold it at VND20,824, while on the black market it was almost VND21,000.

On August 9, when domestic gold prices soared to an all-time record of VND46 million ($2,203) per tael of 37.5 grams, the dollar traded at VND21,300 on the black market and around VND20,810 at banks.

But market observers are awaiting concrete action from the SBV. In June 2009 then SBV governor Nguyen Van Giau also made a similar claim but by November the central bank had devalued the dong by 5 percent.

The HSBC report said the dollar would otherwise depreciate against South Asian currencies.

In North Asia, it predicted the Chinese yuan to rise to 6.4 to the dollar by Q3 this year and 6.25 by Q2 next year.

However, despite this, the greenback would not soon lose its reserve currency status since holding the dollar was still common and necessary in the global financial system.

670 businesses sign up for city shopping campaign

More than 670 businesses in Ho Chi Minh City have signed up for the “Promotion Month 2011,” the annual promotion campaign held in September, the Department of Industry and Trade announced yesterday.

Le Van Khoa, deputy head of the department, said the number of participants was 10.4 percent higher than last year, adding they would offer discounts of up to 49 percent besides freebies.

The campaign, begun in 2005, hopes to stimulate consumption and boost sales at a time when the economy was down.

A “Promotion Month Fair,” to be held at the Phu Tho Stadium in District 11 from August 31 to September 4 with more than 350 booths selling garments, food, electronics, and leather footwear, will kick off the month.

The department said last year the campaign helped businesses increase sales by up to 100 percent.
 
Son La plant’s third turbine begins running

Turbine group 3 of the Son La Hydroelectric Power Plant is expected to officially supply electricity to the national grid on August 25, five days ahead of schedule.

As planned, the Son La Hydroelectric Power Plant will supply nearly 10 million kWh a day to the national grid.

The turbine was put on no-load running smoothly on August 15 as a preparation for the official generation 10 days later.

The first and second turbines of the plant have generated about 3 billion kWh for the national grid since they started working in December last year and this year’s last April, respectively.

The Son La Hydroelectric Power Plant is the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia . It was invested with 42.47 trillion VND and has a planned capacity of 2,400 MW. With six turbines, the plant is expected to provide more than 10 billion kWh a year for the national grid.

China national corporation to pay Vietnam $6 mln

The China National Chemical Construction Corporation has agreed to pay a Vietnamese company US$6 million as a fertilizer factory built by the former in Hai Phong City in 2009 has been found to fall below agreed standards.

According to Hoang Van Lieu, deputy CEO of the Vietnam Chemical National Group (Vinachem), it is stipulated in the contract that the Dinh Vu DAP fertilizer plant will be able to produce fertilizer with nutritional content of between 60 and 64 percent, while the real figure detected is only 60 to 61 percent.

After prolonged negotiations, the Chinese constructor has finally agreed to compensate $2.9 million for this issue, he said.

“They also accepted a fine of $2 million for their tardiness in completing the project,” he added.

In addition, the Chinese company is to pay another $1.05 million worth of some project items that it should have carried out but did not.

Dinh Vu fertilizer plant, the first of its kind in Vietnam to produce diamoni phosphate (DAP) fertilizer, has also been found to have many other problems when it was launched in 2009, six years after construction started.

A report issued by Vinachem showed that although the plant was set to produce 330,000 tons of DAP annually, it only managed to make 150,000 tons out of the 260,000 tons as demanded by Vinachem last year.

Moreover, the plant is polluting the surrounding environment with its toxic emission, the report said.

Imported meats on the rise as domestic prices soar

Amid rising prices, domestic meats have given way to imported products which are attracting market goers and food processing companies with competitive prices.

The CEO of a Ho Chi Minh City-based meat importer said prices of imported frozen meats have slumped by 20 percent compared to May, while domestic food prices soared in June and July.

“This helped boosting the imported meat consumption,” he said, adding that his company imported 1,000 tons of pork and chicken meats last month.

While imported frozen meats used to be sold mostly to industrial kitchens, which are companies contracted to supply meals for workers in industrial parks, they are now enjoying high consumption in retail distribution channels like markets and grocery stores thanks to their reasonable prices.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet, a small trader in Go Vap Market, said market goers prefer imported frozen meats since they could be as much as 25 percent cheaper than domestic ones.

Doan Ngoc Tho, director of THO Company, said imported frozen chicken legs could sometimes be 50 percent cheaper than their domestic counterparts.

According to veterinary authorities, 14,000 tons of frozen meats were imported last month, a 115-percent increase over June.

The director of a food importing company said 1,300 tons of pork entered Vietnam in July, while the number was only 300 tons in June and zero in the previous months.

He said most of the imported pork went to the food processing companies which had switched to the imported materials to avoid losses from high domestic prices.

For his part, Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy head of the Department of Husbandry, said imported meats with a lower price could help meet the domestic demand since there is currently a shortage of meat supply due to disease outbreaks last year.

“But in the long term, the high amount of imported meats could discourage livestock farmers from revitalizing their pig farming,” he added.

He said the department has yet to have any plan to either restrict frozen meat imports or impose higher tariff, which is now 20 percent.

“We will strengthen the food safety and hygiene check on the imports,” he said.

Toshiba to design LCD TVs in India, Vietnam: Nikkei

Toshiba Corp is set on boosting its worldwide LCD TV sales to 25 million units by fiscal 2013Toshiba Corp will begin designing LCD televisions for local markets in India, Indonesia and Vietnam in October to challenge Samsung Electronics Co and other South Korean rivals, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The company is set on boosting its worldwide LCD TV sales to 25 million units by fiscal 2013, up 80 percent from fiscal 2010, the daily reported.

Toshiba aims to have emerging countries account for 50 percent of its global TV sales in volume terms in fiscal 2013, the paper said.

In 2010, the electronics giant launched Power TV, an LCD TV brand for emerging countries. Its lineup currently includes products with built-in storage batteries for areas plagued by frequent blackouts and models with signal-boosting and noise-reducing functions, the daily said.

Power TV models are now sold in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa, and the company's market share has doubled to about 20 percent in some Southeast Asian countries, the business daily added.

LCD TV design divisions, which are already running in India, Indonesia and Vietnam with about 10 staff members each, will also handle notebook computers, the daily reported.

At the same time, the company may design TVs at its personal computer development division in the Chinese province of Hangzhou, the Nikkei said.

Sustainable development industries in spotlight

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has proposed the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD) develop strong, specific measures to assist Vietnam create a sustainable development sector, with new businesses in areas such as environmental protection technologies.

Deputy PM Nhan praised the council’s development targets while receiving VBCSD Co-Chairman Doan Duy Khuong, who is also VCCI Vice President, and Gary Schutz, General Director of Holcim Vietnam, in Hanoi on August 16.

Gary Schutz said the council is devising cooperative plans in the fields of clean technology, energy and climate change, development, education and ecological environment in Vietnam, and plans to arrange a forum for its member companies to exchange and cooperate in building quality pilot initiatives and models of sustainable development.

VBCSD was set up by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the participation of many international and domestic corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises.

It was designed to promote the role of the business community in implementing a sustainable development strategy in Vietnam, contributing to economic growth while ensuring social progress and equality, hunger eradication and poverty reduction, job generation, environmental protection, biodiversity and the ability to cope with climate change.

Increased supplies to meet growing food demand
 
Higher demand for food including pork and rice will be fully met with increased supply in the final months of this year, two ministries affirmed.

In the meeting with the Government on Monday to discuss market stabilisation methods, the Ministry of Industry and Trade outlined predictions that demand for food and foodstuff would rise between 3 and 5 per cent to the end of 2011.

Demand for pork is forecast to reach up to 2.5 million tonnes, with imported pork making up the difference of the 2.38 million tonnes produced domestically.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) supported the forecast, saying the supply of food had increased this month, easing prices by 5-10 per cent.

MARD also said there had been no shortage in paddy supply over the first half of the year, and predicted the 2011 rice yield would be 41.6 million tonnes, an increase of 1.6 million tonnes on 2010 figures. This would satisfy predicted domestic demand of 27.52 million tonnes this year.

In the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai guided MARD to co-operate with provinces in production to meet demand up to the end of Tet (Lunar New Year) 2012.

Moreover, Hai demanded the ministry support farmers in seed supply and animal breeding in the long term.

These were the most effective methods. However, support must be directly sent to farmers so that prices could be reduced, Hai said.

MARD was also ordered to co-operate with the General Statistics Office to obtain exact figures for controlling and stabilising the price in the domestic market.

In the previous month, the prices of many foods and foodstuffs, including pork and vegetables, strongly surged due to higher import costs, diseases and natural disasters.

According to MARD, the prices of some agriculture foodstuffs increased by 40-60 per cent, while inflation was only 13 per cent. Pork prices jumped the highest, surging by 70 per cent in April over the same period last year.

Meat is already being imported in large quantities, mainly due to the massive differences in the prices of domestic produce and imports. The Veterinary Medical Agency-Region VI said that in the first seven months of the year, 50,500 tonnes of meat were imported, with chicken accounting for 80 per cent.

Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department, attributed the sharp increase in the import of chicken and pork last month to the big gap between domestic and global prices. Many consumers preferred imported meat as a result, he added.

The Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that in some retail markets in HCM City, imported chicken, mainly wings and legs, was more popular since it was priced much lower than similar domestic products.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet, a retailer at the Go Vap Market said Vietnamese chicken wings cost VND88,000 per kilogramme while imports only cost VND65,000.

Doan Ngoc Tho, a wholesale supplier of imported meat, said sometimes imported chicken legs cost just half the price of imports.

Nguyen Ngoc Hung, director of the Gia Truyen Food Company, said imported pork was also much cheaper, costing VND65,000-70,000 per kilogramme compared to VND90,000 for domestic produce.

Son of the Animal Husbandry Department said while imports would temporarily ease the shortfall and help reduce meat prices, in the long term they would affect the domestic animal-husbandry industry.

So proper measures were needed to check unnecessary imports, he said.

The department was however now focused on technical standards and the food safety of imported meat products, he added.

Vietnam seeks to develop safe biotech system

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) hosted a seminar in Hanoi on August 16 to seek effective strategies to develop a safe biotechnology system in Vietnam.

The participants focused on discussing tools to establish a biotechnology safety system, including the Net-Mapping which was developed by IFPRI in 2008.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bui Ba Bong said that application of biotechnology in agriculture was both an opportunity and a challenge to Vietnam, since the country was now in its initial stage of bio-tech research related to genetic modifications and biological, environmental and human health risks.

Vietnam had issued a set of legal documents relating to biotech safety and development, as well as policies on cooperation and experience exchange with other countries in this field. It set a priority in producing new species of plants and animals of high quality and economic competitiveness, to develop the national bio-tech sector to regional standards, Bong said.

Julian Adams, coordinator of the Programme for Bio-Safety System in Asia said that by 2010, there were 29 countries in the world that had allowed the plantation of genetically modified trees. During the 1996 – 2009 period, bio-tech applied trees helped raise farmers’ incomes to almost $65 billion.

Farmers form alliances to boost profits

Farmers in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai are joining alliances to enhance the value of their agricultural products as part of a project that uses funds from a governmental loan from the World Bank.

Le Van Linh, deputy director of the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the province is taking advantage of the national Agricultural Competitiveness Project (ACP) to lift production and sale of several key products.

"Coffee, pepper and cows for meat are the ones prioritised," said Linh, who is also director of the ACP in Gia Lai province.

Alliances with farmers producing other items, including mushrooms and sugarcane, will also be formed.

The Vietnam ACP project is conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, focusing on central provinces, including Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, Ninh Thuan and Gia Lai.

It is funded with $75 million from the World Bank's International Development Association loan and Vietnamese Government support.

The ACP in Gia Lai (Gia Lai ACP Unit) plans to set up 11-12 alliances, with an $8.2 million fund, to link farmers in one specific agricultural sector to enhance the competitiveness of local agro-products, according to the Gia Lai ACP Unit.

In November last year, the Gia Lai ACP Unit succeeded in forming an alliance of farmers who grow coffee trees in Chu Prong district.

One hundred farmers, whose products in the past were sold directly to traders, have joined together to produce a coffee product under the brand name of Utz.

"The Utz product is being exported globally," said Hoang Van Tuan, a co-ordinator of Gia Lai ACP Unit.

Last July, 80 households raising cows for meat in Kong Chro District and a local enterprise formed an alliance in which they learn feeding techniques that will help fatten up cows for sale.

"Farmers in the district's An Trung Commune here raise cows and sell cows to traders individually, but they don't know how to feed cows to fatten them up before selling, resulting in low profits," said Tuan.

"The alliance members learn feeding techniques. The local Van Bau enterprise will collect the farmers' cows after the feeding process. This brings more income to cow farmers," Tuan said.

Farmers in the alliance also take advantage of local feed sources like grass, sweet corn, rice bran and sugarcane to feed cows, according to formulas gained from the alliances training programmes.

Forty per cent of the total expenses from the feeding process will be refunded by the Gia Lai ACP Unit to the farmers after each harvest of cows, based on the invoices or receipts given by the farmers.

"ACP is not a project that provides 100 per cent funding to farmers. Farmers get 40 per cent of the total cost and they must pay for the remaining 60 per cent," Tuan said.

"The project also doesn't give money in advance to farmers before the work is done, but refunds them based on compliance with the project's regulations by farmers," he added.

This way of support is believed to help farmers become independent from other assistance and to develop a living on their own.

"The project's main principle is good because it helps farmers exploit their own capability and prevents them from relying on others," said Hoang Phuoc Binh, deputy chairman of the Chu Se Pepper Association.

The association includes pepper farmers in districts Chu Se and Chu Puh in the province.

In mid-July, the World Bank decided to assist the association to form two alliances of pepper farmers.

One is for growing pepper in a sustainable manner, with the aim of increasing the quality and yield of the well-known Chu Se pepper.

Another is to gather outstanding pepper farmers in a plant that produces white pepper.

Pepper price hits new record

The domestic pepper price hit a 15-year high this morning as high demand and low supply on the world market forced up the price.

The per tonne price reached VND124 million (US$5,900) today, an increase of VND4 million ($190) per tonne on the previous week's price.

Last Saturday, the price stood at VND120 million ($5,700) but jumped to VND122 million ($5,800) on Sunday.

Last month, the country exported more than 13,000 tonnes of pepper, worth a total value of $78.5 million.

U.S.-Vietnam trade still in strong growth momentum

Despite difficulties in the U.S., two-way trade between this country and Vietnam continue to register a double-digit increase as showed by updates of the U.S. Census Bureau on its website.

Figures at www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance indicated the U.S. trade in goods with Vietnam surpassed US$10.15 billion in the first half of this year, a year-on-year rise of over 21%.

The U.S. imported merchandise worth more than US$8 billion and earned export revenue of over US$2.14 billion from Vietnam in the January-June period, as compared to some US$6.6 billion and US$1.7 billion in the first half of 2010.

Noticeably, Vietnam’s export revenue from the U.S. market rose month-on-month in the second quarter of this year, from nearly US$1.36 billion in April to more than US$1.43 billion in May and US$1.52 billion in June. On the opposite direction, Vietnam saw the U.S. imports down to more than US$351 million in May from US$385 million in April before inching up to US$358 million in June.

Apparel still topped the list of Vietnamese products shipped to the country’s biggest export market in the first half of this year as this brought about revenue of over US$3 billion, recording strong growth of around 18.5% over the same period last year.  

Footwear was Vietnam’s second biggest earner from the selective market in the six months ended in June as its export value stateside rose 27% year-on-year to nearly US$968 million, followed by furniture with 4.5% and US$837 million respectively.

Electronic items and seafood were also among Vietnam’s major export products bound for the U.S. in the year to June, with the latter’s earnings up 49% to more than US$332 million.

Fabric and fiber appeared as the top U.S. merchandise exported to Vietnam in the January-June period, with a whopping year-on-year increase of 155% to over US$262 million. The other major export earners included steel, machinery, equipment and accessories.

Last year, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Vietnam neared US$19 billion, a significant rise of about 20% over the year earlier. Vietnamese exports accounted for more than US$14.8 billion of the total number.

PV